“Live,” she whispered, then gently wiped the tear from her cheek with the tip of her finger. She danced her wet fingertip across my lips. “Live,” she whispered again, pressing her lips against mine, then she went still, slumping onto my chest.
To my amazed eyes, I watched as the golden light transformed her tail back into legs. But the glow didn’t stop there. It moved onto me, covering my whole body. It was like I’d been submerged in a bath of love and light. My whole body glimmered as I was filled with the sensations of warmth and healing. I heard my heart beating. I felt my blood pumping through my veins. I breathed deeply, feeling my lungs take in the shimmering glow. When I exhaled, I could feel the darkness and illness and death leaving me. My body felt clean, renewed.
As the sun rose, filling the world with light, I knew my cancer was gone.
And the mermaid who’d given me the precious gift of life lay unmoving against my chest.
Epilogue
The sound of swing music filled the little house on Juniper Lane.
“Daddy,” my littlest daughter, Kayla, called from the yard. “Turn the sprinkler on.”
“I’m coming,” I called. I pushed open the door only to get smacked square in the chest with a water balloon. Al, who had just lost his two front teeth, stood grinning like a jack-o-lantern at the bottom of the stairs. “I’m gonna get you,” I yelled then raced down the stairs after him.
Al ran around the back of the house giving me enough time to open the faucet on the sprinklers. I heard Kayla squeal with delight as water splashed around the yard.
“Don’t tell me you started without me?” a voice called from the porch.
I turned to see Kate coming down the stairs, looking adorable in her red polka-dot bikini. It highlighted the red, heart-shaped beach glass pendant lying on her chest.
“Sorry,” I called, turning to join her, pretending I didn’t see Al sneaking up on me from the other side of the porch. “Everything okay?” I asked her, studying the worried expression on her face.
She shrugged. “More gray hairs,” she said then, fluffing her long, blonde locks.
“That happens,” I said, leaning in to kiss her cheek, “when you’re human.”
Before she could answer, however, Al launched his attack, drenching us both. This time, however, Kate ran after him. I watched her go, my wife, my savior, my…mermaid, who had given up her last spark of magic for me, not knowing the gift it would give her in return. I smiled as I watched her laugh, tickling our little boy until he crumpled to the ground, our daughter joining in the fun. My wife, whom I would grow old with and would love until the day I died…many years from now.
The Cupcake Witch
They say the course of true love never runs smooth.
That’s nothing a magical cupcake can’t solve.
Buttercream. Vanilla. Fondant. Dark chocolate. Strawberry crème. Brown sugar. Lemon curd. Molasses. Baking has always been my true love. But it wasn’t until I unexpectedly inherited Serendipity Gardens that my bliss called me. Bittersweet.
Everything’s going to work out perfectly as long as the local land baron and his annoying but undeniably handsome son don’t bulldoze my dream first.
I’m going to need a little magic to win this battle, but in Chancellor, a pinch of enchantment is always in plenty.
“Follow your bliss & don't be afraid & doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.”
- Joseph Campbell
Chapter 1: Julie
Holding the whisk tightly, I swirled the pale-yellow batter around the bowl, the sweet scents of vanilla, brown sugar, and bitter dark chocolate perfuming the air. Even though it was a cool autumn morning, the heat from the oven made the kitchen feel toasty warm. I’d been baking all morning: expresso mini cupcakes with cappuccino flavored frosting, matcha green tea macaroons, and strawberry rhubarb coffee cake. The kitchen smelled divine. Now, with a pot of coffee brewing and a batch of chocolate chip walnut cookies just about ready to go into the oven, I could almost relax.
“Here, taste this,” I said to Dad, scooping up a small bite of the dough with a spoon and sticking it into his mouth before he could protest.
“You’re going to give me salmonella poisoning,” he said then sighed deeply. “A little food poisoning is worth it. So good, but they taste…different.”
“Bad different?”
Dad shook his head. “Tasty different.”
“Organic brown sugar and sea salt.”
“I’m going to gain ten pounds before you go back to college next week,” he said with a laugh then turned back to his paperwork.
Sighing, I placed the cookie dough on the baking sheet and stuck it in the oven. How was I going to tell Dad I wasn’t planning on going back? With Mom gone…well, I just didn’t even know why I was there anymore. It wasn’t like I had ever wanted to go to college. I wanted to be a baker. But Mom wanted me to be a dentist, so I was studying pre-dentistry. Now, Mom was gone. The pain of her loss still felt like a huge lump in my chest.
I poured Dad and myself coffee and sat down at the table. He was thumbing through a heap of real estate briefs. Dayton Real Estate was busier than ever, and with Mom gone, an agent short. Dad was running himself ragged.
I spooned some raw sugar into my cup and tried to think of something to say other than the fact that I hated school. It was nearly the end of October and thus far junior year had been a bust. I told Dad I wasn’t ready. After losing Mom that summer, I just couldn’t get my head back into the game. I didn’t want to waste my life pursuing a career in dentistry just because everyone, but especially Mom, thought it would be a good move for a smart girl like me. Mom’s death had taught me many things, the most important being that life was short. Why was I working so hard for a future I felt pretty apathetic about?
“Here is the property in Chancellor I was telling you about,” Dad said, saving me from having the dreaded conversation once more, as he handed me an envelope. From inside, I pulled out a yellowed photograph of a tiny little Tudor-style cottage. Under the photo, the words Serendipity Gardens had been written in faded pencil.
“It looks like a witch’s cottage. Mrs. Aster, the woman who left us the building…how did you say we were related again?” I stared at the photograph as I twirled one red dreadlock around my finger. The little building was a mess, the glass nursery overgrown, but there was something quaint, almost fairy tale like, about it.
Dad was eyeing the table full of sweets, finally settling on one of the mini cupcakes, popping it into his mouth. “These are amazing, Julie. Seriously,” he said after a moment. “Mrs. Aster was Grandma Belle’s husband’s sister.”
“And how does that make her related to us?”
“Through marriage only, but we are her closest living relatives,” Dad said then shrugged. “I’ve got the property into the MLS system, but I need to run over to Chancellor this week and put up the signs. Probably won’t be hard to move the old place. I already have a message—which I haven’t even managed to return yet—from Blushing Grape Vineyards inquiring on the property. Need to get that sign up, see if I can fish any other bids out of the pond. Maybe the college will want the property, turn it into an office or something. On the corner of Main Street and Magnolia, the location is great. We’ll probably get a good price if we can get some competition,” Dad said then paused. He looked up at me, a serious expression on his face. “You know, Chancellor College offers science degrees. Jules, I know you aren’t happy…” he began then stopped. Trying again, he switched directions by saying, “Maybe if you were closer to home, things might be easier.”